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Wileys Wild Ride by Stan Stokes.
The Lockheed Vega was the aircraft of choice for many of the record-setting pilots of the 1920s and 1930s. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation was organized in December of 1926. Its first plant was a delapidated building in Hollywood, California. Lockheeds two primary designers were Jack Northrop, who would later found his own company, and Gerry Vultee, who would also become a famous aircraft manufacturer on his own. The Vega was the first commercial product from the new company. Despite its streamlined appearance, the Vega utilized WW I era technology. A plywood fuselage was shaped in large concrete molds, and the wing was designed incorporating techniques pioneered by Anthony Fokker. Initially powered with a 220-HP Wright radial engine, the aircraft was designed to carry up to five people at the speed of 135-MPH. Publisher Geroge Hearst purchased the first Vega for $12,000, and entered the aircraft in an Oakland to Hawaii race. This aircraft never reached Hawaii. Despite this setback interest in the aircraft increased. George Wilkins purchased a Vega and used it to fly the polar route Point Barrow to Norway. He also utilized two Vegas for an expedition to Antarctica. Other aviators lined-up to get their hands on a Lockheed. Art Goebel and Harry Tucker set a transcontinental speed record in the Vega of less than 19 hours, becoming the first to make this trip in less than 24 hours. With the favorable publicity generated by these record setting flights, Lockheed was willing to make modifications to its aircraft to serve particular needs of the customer. Air racer Roscoe Turner flew a Gilmore sponsored Vega which had been modified into a parasol wing configuration, with an enclosed cockpit moved aft on the fuselage. One of the more famous Vegas was that owned by an oilman named F.C. Hall. The aircraft was named the Winnie Mae after Halls daughter. The man selected by Hall to pilot his Vega was Wiley Post. Post was a former Oklahoma oil field worker who lost an eye in an accident. He used the money he received for his injury to take flying lessons. In 1930 Hall sponsored Post in the National Air Races which he won. The following year Post and his navigator Harold Gatty circumnavigated the globe in 8 days - smashing the previous record held by the German dirigible Graf Zeppelin. In 1933 he accomplished a solo-circumnavigation of the globe in seven days. In 1934 and 1935 Wiley set a number of altitude records. He attained a speed of 340-MPH aided by the jet stream during a transcontinental attempt in 1935, which unfortunately ended with a crash landing and the destruction of the Winnie Mae. Later in 1935 Wiley Post was killed with his friend and well-known comedian Will Rogers in the crash of a floatplane in Alaska. Both Wiley and the Winnie Mae, however, merit an honored place in American aviation history. |
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